Wishing the riders a speedy recovery.
https://www.facebook.com/118169238201184/posts/2339066272778125/
Scary! Sara’s injuries are significant yet sound like it could have been even worse than it is. Has anyone seen the extent of Caroline’s injuries disclosed anywhere? Hoping for her sake that they are minor!
Thank goodness both horses are ok, I know that has to be a huge relief to the riders and their teams, even as they worry about the riders.
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I thought I read that Caroline was okay, had been seen at hospital but was home resting and waiting to see her regular doctor.
Well, what do you know - two serious falls at flat tables.
Flat tables. Which were identified as a problem fence type decades ago.
Sara’s injuries sound extensive. Wishing her a complete recovery.
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I was told broken collarbone, but that was secondhand information in the camping area.
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I also heard broken collar bone (floating around stabling that afternoon), but she hasn’t said anything official.
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JER - that sounds like a real problem. Any one else saying anything about this, or is the silence we are “hearing” what comes from the confusion and ambivalence these sorts of rider falls cause?
Is it required to include a table on UL xc courses? Yet, if there’s a correlation between that type of jump and bad falls, it seems that getting rid of the table-style jump would be such an easy solution.
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It seems as though being a professional is not now if you will have a serious injury, but when.
Does anyone know if either riders wear air vests?
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I saw that the fence judge from fence #18 said that the first words they heard from Sarah were her asking if her horse was ok.
I wish them both full recoveries.
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That doesn’t surprise me. I only know Sarah from afar as a fan and follower, but she seems like a true, genuine horsewoman and her love for Rubens is incredibly evident.
It seems her spirits are still intact as her FB update post-surgery today included some humor. I hope both riders heal quickly!
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Same. I don’t know her personally, but she seems like a class act and a rider who truly loves her horses.
Re: tables … they obviously have their risks, especially at the upper levels where the height and width leaves little room for error; however, they are also the most common type of fences and oftentimes make up 1/3 of the fences or so. Do the data show that tables are proportionately more likely to cause falls than other than types of fences? Or just that they are the most common type of fence at which falls occur? If we’re talking about replacing tables with something else, it’s an important distinction to make.
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The issue with flat tables - this is as compared with tables with an ascending face - is that the horse may not be able to see the width of the fence correctly. As you say, this type of fence leaves little room for error and one question we should always be asking is whether the well-being or life of a horse and/or rider is an appropriate penalty for even a small error at an obstacle.
What do we replace flat tables with? How about simply a safer type of fence. Jumping tables is not the essence of XC and the sport loses nothing by going to safer obstacles. In 2013, the Grand National replaced the traditional fences with plastic core fences and since then, there have been no fatalities. Given the death toll in the GN over the years, that’s a huge, positive change. It doesn’t make the race completely safe as with 40 horses galloping 4.5 miles over giant fences there loads of elements you can’t totally control. But the new fences have ushered in a safer era without changing the essence of the race.
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So I read that article you linked and went to the Easy Fix website but the only safety element they talk about is not splintering and cutting the horse. How are they safer in terms of not causing rotational falls ?
Grand National fence changes trialled at Aintree (BBC)
“We have traditionally had a rigid timber frame, which has foam padding along the leading edge, but is solid. We have replaced four of those with an alternative, which will be a bit more forgiving,” Tulloch told BBC Sport.
"If the horse hits something solid at racing speed it can unbalance it and cause a fall, but now if horses knock the spruce off, there will be a softer frame underneath. Other horses should be able to brush through it without injuring themselves.
“If it is successful we will roll it out to the other fences. The fences are outwardly the same. We are not lowering them - that could potentially make the horses go quicker.”
The move has been welcomed by the RSPCA equine consultant David Muir.
“It allows a horse to make a mistake and survive,” he said.
“Previous to that when they hit the solid core of the fences, it took their legs away and it was down to luck whether they got over the other side and managed to get up again.”
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Yes, we don’t know. Could have been less injuries, or worse. But worth noting. An air vest could potentially worsen a spinal injury? I hope someone is collecting this data.
Does anyone know how Sarah fell? It was noted it was not rotational.
I agree that tables should always be built so that the horse can accurately judge the width of the fences from a good distance out. The picture of fence 4 makes it look like it may be lifted slightly in the back to give it an ascending face?? Hard to tell for sure, but fence 18 does look very horizontal in the picture that may make it tough for the horse to judge.
It would be great to have more options for collapsible/more forgiving design in tables, while still retaining the solid appearance of a traditional one. I’ve seen some of the collapsible tables and while the concept is great, they have all had a sort of strange, airy appearance to them.
But what matters is how they look to the horse.
And of course it’s not just the obstacle itself, it’s how the lines of sight are wrt its surroundings. Maybe this is more critical with jumps with width. A fence line or water feature in the background might interfere with the horse’s ability to discern the parameters of the obstacle.
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Can horses bank collapsible tables? I ask because I am remembering a fabulous save by Kim Severson when her Fernhill horse banked a table. I know horses don’t do that very often, but banking is a current option with tables.
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https://youtu.be/VZE6KBIQoDo. Looking at the helmet cam, these tables have a seeable top, they are not completely flat. I’ve been doing decorating quite a bit and the tables are carefully placed nowadays to give less of a surprise than in the recent past
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